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In shifting sands of Middle East, who will lead?
| Washington
Even before the recent round of Hamas rockets and airstrikes from Israel in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian enclave was in the news as the diplomatic destination of choice for the leaders of the Middle East. Last month, the emir of Qatar visited Gaza. Bahrain's embattled king is also weighing such a trip. Turkey's prime minister, too, announced his intention to travel to the strip.
News reports speculate that the leaders' attention will further legitimize Gaza's militant Hamas at the expense of Mahmoud Abbas's secular Palestinian Authority, which is based in the West Bank. Yet the sudden diplomatic interest in Gaza has more to do with prime ministers, kings, emirs, and presidents seeking to burnish their legitimacy – or importantly, their credentials as potential regional leaders.
The uprisings, revolutions, and civil wars that have dramatically altered domestic politics in the Arab world have had a profound effect on regional power dynamics – including Iran. The Middle East is up for grabs, yet which country or countries will lead is as unclear and complex as current efforts to build new political systems in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, and elsewhere.
The issue of leadership is critical for the region. States with prestige and financial, diplomatic, and military resources can drive events in the Middle East – hopefully for good, but potentially for bad. In the 1950s and '60s, for example, Egypt's leadership under Gamal Abdel Nasser shaped regional politics around the myths of Arab nationalism, which led to intra-Arab conflict and regional war. The Arab Spring provides an opportunity for a power or group of powers to usher in a new era of peace, prosperity, and perhaps democracy.
In the spring of 2011, some observers believed that Turkey was a model for countries in the Arab world that aspire to democratic politics and successful economies. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's triumphal tour of Cairo, Tunis, and Tripoli in September 2011 reinforced the idea that Ankara was the natural center of a new emerging regional order.
Turkey certainly has much to offer the region. It is more democratic than any country in the Arab world and boasts the 16th largest economy in the world. The din of various Arabic dialects spoken by Egyptian, Libyan, Saudi, and other tourists at passport control at Istanbul's Ataturk International Airport or in the famous Grand Bazaar speaks to Turkey's regional pull.
However, a little more than a year after Mr. Erdogan's regional tour, Turkey's popularity – while still strong – is softening. In a recent poll, the respected Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation uncovered a creeping ambivalence among Arabs about Turkey's regional role.
For example, across 16 countries surveyed, 69 percent of respondents reported a positive impression of Turkey. But the number of Arabs who regard Turkey as a model fell to just over half from the year before. Approval of Turkey's regional influence was 60 percent, also lower. In the abstract, these are all enviable results, but they represent a slide of eight to nine percentage points in just one year – a significant drop.
Deteriorating relations with Iraq and alignment with Saudi Arabia and Qatar on Syria are taking a toll on Turkey's regional standing. It is true that the Turks are helping the Syrians free themselves from a brutal dictator, but few in the Arab world trust the Qataris, and especially the Saudis.
Ankara's approach is also fueling suspicion – if only by circumstance – among Arabs that the Turks are pursuing a sectarian strategy that will sow conflict in the region, which in some ways has already begun in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.
Turkey's regional prominence before the uprisings was based in part on its ability to be a neutral arbiter and problem solver in the region. That esteem seems to have been lost in the maelstrom of Syria and the complexities of Arab transitions.
And forgotten in all the romance about neo-Ottomanism is the fact that while the Turks are geographically adjacent to the Middle East and are overwhelmingly Muslim, they remain outsiders given their own colonial legacy in the Arab world. This view of Turkey is common among older Arabs and even younger activists who took to the streets to depose dictators in the name of national empowerment and dignity as well as democracy.
Finally, observers have tended to conflate Turkey's soft power with an ability to shape regional politics. The posters of Erdogan in Lebanon's Sabra and Shatila Palestinian refugee camps may be a testament to the Turkish leader's stance on the Palestinian issue. But this kind of grass-roots popularity cannot hide the fact that Turkish efforts to cool hot spots like Libya, Syria, and Gaza have failed. Erdogan was unable to influence his ally Muammar Qaddafi, the former Libyan dictator, to reform. Neither was he able to pressure his once friend and protégé in Syria, Bashar al-Assad, to call off his murderous attacks on peaceful protesters. And he also failed to force an end to Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip.
If not Turkey, then who will emerge as the Middle East's regional power or powers?
The other contenders – Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, Iran, and even Israel – have their own deficits in soft power and limited capabilities that will make it hard to establish themselves as the region's undisputed leader.
It will even be difficult for a coalition of countries to lead given differing interests and regional rivalries. It is no secret that the Qataris and Saudis dislike each other, and Arabs are unlikely to submit to Turkish leadership even in partnership with Arab countries. Cairo, for example, has been lukewarm to strategic relations with Ankara.
These problems are abundantly clear in the failure of the Qataris, Saudis, and Turks to forge a broader, more unified Syrian opposition – something that required US pressure to achieve.
Without a clear leader, regional states will continue to maneuver around each other, seeking advantage and influence wherever they can until some diplomatic or geopolitical change – perhaps the fall of the Assad regime, or a strike on Iran's nuclear program – provides an opportunity for one country to step forward and lead.
Steven A. Cook is the Hasib J. Sabbagh senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is the author of "The Struggle for Egypt: From Nasser to Tahrir Square" (Oxford University Press).


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WASHINGTON -- In the aftermath of the Super Bowl, it is perhaps salutary to take stock of professional football and to suggest a few reforms that might make the game more wholesome.
First, let me say that, in my humble estimate, this past season was, if not the best in my lifetime, surely one of the best. To be a mediocre player in the NFL today is to be a marked man among giants. Then, too, there is another point to be made. Someone failed to pay the electric bill. It was sobering to be reminded that even the NFL is not so powerful as to intimidate a Louisiana utility company. Next year I suggest that the NFL's hierarchy see to it that all bills are paid before Super Bowl Sunday, even the halftime entertainments' advances. What if Beyonce had gone on strike or refused to sing one of her trademark songs with their dirty, albeit moronic, lyrics? Or what if she had dressed in a burka? Actually I would have found that last gesture amusing and sophisticated to the utmost, though the perpetual teenagers in the audience would probably not have shared my amusement.
I cannot remember ever seeing so many great quarterbacks in the league at one time as I did this season. They can all pass and run superbly. Weight training is paying off for all the players, especially the receivers who grab in their powerful fingertips what once they had to embrace with their whole upper bodies. They leap through the air defiant of gravity, as do their attendant safeties. Blockers and tacklers could have stopped oncoming trucks. The many gifted runners seemed capable of switching gears as they rush downfield, slithering through crowds of defenders and cutting to the left and the right with abandon. As I say, this season I suspect was the greatest in NFL history, and it was due to powerful men on the field and to very cerebral coaches on the sidelines.
Yet there were also the injuries, and they were terrible. Concussions were so prevalent that even Hillary Clinton got one. I suspect it was a sympathy concussion from watching her New York Giants too intently. Then there were the numerous joints that were damaged severely. For instance, the splendid Robert Griffin III, of the resurgent Washington Redskins, had a knee injured that will heal only with Divine intervention, a matter to which I think that this exemplary Christian athlete is attending. Yet his recovery will be dicey. It was a horrible season for injuries.
Now certain public-spirited citizens are speaking out. They want adjustments made. Helmets can be revised. Rules reinterpreted. More rules prescribed. Gun control can -- drat, I got carried away. Though I note that the same mentality that is in a pother over gun control often is aroused by football violence. Well, on gun control they are wrong. In a country with over 280 million guns in circulation and a Second Amendment in place, they will get nowhere.
Yet with rule changes in football they may have a chance. Frankly, I see the public-spirited reformers of professional football coming out for ending those ferocious tackles and propounding the implementation in the NFL of touch football or possibly flag football. Imagine Adrian Peterson running fifteen yards for a first down before Ray Lewis tags him in an utterly civilized lunge or snatches the flag from his rear pocket with style. If the NFL were to replace tackle football with touch or flag football there would still be dangers. Those helmets really can hurt. Perhaps they could be replaced with funny hats lined with cushioning. Elbow and knees can cause a lot of pain. Again thick cushioning could be prescribed. There are many alternatives that can be employed against brute force.
Actually there seems to be a movement led by the athletes themselves in this direction. The artistic demonstrations after a mighty tackle or an overpowering touchdown run have been an innovation that must have warmed the hearts of many reformers. Those elegant dances are very tasteful and in the Super Bowl this year I even detected routines employing the hands that showed real artistic taste.
So maybe the time is ripe for the reformers to make a move against tackle football and in favor of modern dance on the gridiron, as it is called. Maybe it is only a matter of time before the halftime entertainment overwhelms the game -- Beyonce appearing in a chorus line with beefy linemen and even coaches. Call it the ongoing feminization of America. I would not be surprised.

subset: commoncrawl


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87-year-old actor Dick Van Dyke narrowly averted disaster moments ago on an L.A. freeway -- when his Jaguar burst into flames -- but thankfully, he was pulled to safety in the nick of time.
The hero who rescued him is a guy named Jason Pennington, who tells TMZ, he was driving along the 101 when he saw a car full of smoke on the side of the road ... and an elderly man hunched over at the wheel.
Pennington tells us, he pulled up and ran over to discover Dick Van Dyke struggling inside.
Pennington says he opened the driver door and pulled the actor out of the vehicle as flames tore through the engine.
We're told Dick was slightly disoriented by the experience but did NOT need medical attention. His wife came to pick him up shortly after and brought him home.
As for the car ... it's toast.
omg like worst nightmare :(


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An aim of Data Science Market report is to guide the user to know the market in terms of its definition, market potential, vital trends, and the challenges facing by the market. Step by step study of Data Science market provides an extensive outlook on the market trends from 2019 to 2028 covering crucial information on product demand, Data Science industry segmentation and market abstract in each region. We have given a detail analysis of the vendor landscape to offer you with a full picture of ongoing and future Data Science market competitive scenarios. The report covers Data Science market inforrmation including historical and upcoming trends for supply, prices, competition, trading, and value chain. Moreover, the report also provides a SWOT analysis that comprise the strengths, weaknesses, challenges, opportunities, and threats impacting the overall market.
At first the report introduced the definitions, classifications, Data Science market applications and market outlook; product statement; manufacturing processes; cost frame, raw materials and so on. Then it studied the main region market conditions globally, containing the product price, profit, Data Science capacity, supply, demand, production, market growth rate and forecast to 2028 etc. In the end, the report offers new project SWOT analysis, Data Science market investment feasibility study, and investment return analysis.
If you are a stakeholder in the Data Science Market, this research study will help you understand the growth model. Click to get a Free Brochure report in PDF (including ToC, Tables and Figures)
The Prime Manufacturers Covered In This Report Are: Apteryx Inc, Rapid Miner Inc, SAS Institute Inc, IBM Corporation, Datalink SAS, Microsoft Corporation, SAP SE, Math Works Inc and Fair Isaac Corporation (FICO)
Global Data Science Market Segmentation, 2019-2028:
By type: Solutions, Services. By end user: Banking and Financial Institutions (BFSI), Telecommunication, Transportation and Logistics, Healthcare, Manufacturing
On the basis of region, the Data Science market is segmented into Europe, Japan, Southeast Asia, United States, China, South America, South Africa, India and the rest of the world.
The future of the industries is projected on the basis of the ongoing scenario, profit, and Data Science market growth opportunities. Distinct graphical presentation methods are used to demonstrate the facts. Further, we discuss some internal and external factors that drive or restraint the Data Science market. The study is a thorough mixture of qualitative and quantitative data including Data Science market size, revenue, and volume (if applicable) by vital segments. It also scrutinizes the performance of the Data Science market key players operating in the industry including their company profile, corporate summary, financial review. The report examines market segmentation based upon the different segments like type, application, end user and region. In addition foremost regions featuring 'North America, Asia-Pacific, United Kingdom, Europe, Central & South America, Middle East & Africa.'
Any Query? Fill Free To Inquire Here. We'll Put You On The Right Path:
The main features are covered in the Global Data Science Market 2019 report:
– The Data Science market report comprises the latest mechanical enhancements and latest releases to engage our consumers to produce, settle on instructed business decisions, and build their future estimated achievements.
– The Data Science market report further focuses more on ongoing business and progressions, future methodology changes, and open entryways for the worldwide Data Science market.
– The investment return study, SWOT analysis, and feasibility study are also used for data study.
Key questions include:
1. What will the outstanding growth rate and also Data Science industry size globally by 2028?
2. What will be the crucial elements driving the Data Science market?
3. What will be the impact of existing and new emerging Data Science market trends 2019-2028?
4. What would be the future Data Science market behavior forecast 2028 with trends, challenges, opportunities and drivers, challenges for development?
5. Who are the leading vendors of the market?
6. Which would be Data Science industry opportunities and dangers faced with most vendors in the market?
7. What are the parameters that affecting the Data Science market share?
8. What will be the outcomes of Data Science market SWOT five forces study?


text: University of Oklahoma Libraries Western History Collections CHOCTAW NATION MANUSCRIPT COLLECTIONS Goodland Indian School Collection Printed materials 1940-1956 5 items Indian school and orphanage. Newspaper clippings (1956); brochures (1950); pamphlets (1955); and a published history (1940) of the Goodland Indian School, a Presbyterian orphanage founded for Choctaw Indians, but later expanded to serve orphans from other tribes as well. BOX G-11 Folder 1: Publications about Goodland Indian School, including: 1. "The Goodland Indian Orphanage: A Story of Christian Missions," 1940. 2. Program for the dedication of Bacon Hall at Goodland Indian Orphanage, April 18, 1955. 3. Goodland Centennial Souvenir Program, 1950. 4. An unused business envelope from Goodland. 5. Program for First Presbyterian Church of Tulsa, World Fellowship Meetings, 1955. Folder 2: 1. The Paris (Texas) News, November 18, 1956. "Goodland Indian Orphanage: A Tribute to Thanksgiving".


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This article is more than 1 year old
Quit Facebook Day flops
Breaking the habit ain't easy
Monday's Quit Facebook Day turned out to be something of a damp squib.
Just 34,100 of Facebook's more than 450 million members pledged to quit over privacy concerns. The low number is probably more a reflection of how hard it is to break the Facebook habit, rather than signifying acceptance of the simplified privacy controls introduced by the social network last week after much criticism, as QuitFacebookDay explains.
"Quitting Facebook isn't easy," the group said. "Facebook is engaging, enjoyable and quite frankly, addictive. Quitting something like Facebook is like quitting smoking. It's hard to stay on the wagon long enough to actually change your habits."
Of course many of those who've recently decided to quit Facebook have done so without making a pledge so the true figure of disaffected former members is difficult to gauge.
Facebook has weathered a series of privacy controversies in its short lifespan of just six years, including disquiet over its Newsfeed feature and Beacon advertising system, the latter of which the site was eventually forced to scrap.
The latest controversy kicked off in December with a privacy roll-back that meant users' profiles become public by default, whatever the previous settings. Plans announced by Facebook in March to share data with "pre-approved" third-party websites threw extra heat onto a simmering row, mainly since it coincided with negative reports by EU privacy officials and campaigns by privacy activists against the earlier changes.
Last week Facebook got rid of the 50 privacy settings and 150 options built into its system last year without really answering the fundamental question of why it wanted users to share material they posted online with the internet at large. The social networking site's seemingly compulsive tinkering with privacy settings also went unexplained.
Facebook chief exec Mark Zuckerburg claimed during a press conference announcing the simplified privacy settings that what Facebook users shared had no bearing on advertising revenues. He also said recommendations from people asking friends and contacts to join Facebook, something the social metric uses as a key metric in assessing likely growth, remained strong despite recent protests.
In other Facebook news, last weekend became the third successive week to witness a run of hacker attacks. Following earlier attacks themed around "Distracting Beach Babes" and "Sexiest Video Ever" the latest attack falsely promised the "Most Hilarious Video ever". Users who fell for the latest ruse were redirected to a fake login page in an attempt to trick them into handing over their login credentials, AVG reports.
Attempts were also made to target US users and con them into downloading scareware disguised as a video codec needed to view a non-existent clip, Websense adds. ®


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Show All Answers
House arrest is determined by a judicial officer. It may be as a condition of release on bond or it can be a sentence versus jail time by a presiding judge.
The program length depends on whether or not it occurred under the condition of bond or sentence.
Yes, you will receive cost information upon applying with the agency.
The agency will notify the court you did not comply and terminate you. You will be subject to your bond being revoked (condition of release) or Failure to Comply with a fine of $500 and or 30 days in jail (sentence or condition of release).
You need to contact Municipal Court at 843-875-2010 for re-sentencing.


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Weekly review
| weeklyWhat I know is nothing compared to what I will learn, and what I will
learn is nothing compared to what is knowable. That was the key thought for this week as I went into my second client
engagement, this time with a financial services firm. There's just so
much to learn. It's a little bit intimidating,
but even though I'm new, I can bring useful things to the table: my
questions and my notes. If I take in as much as I can from lots of
different people and serve as a conduit between them, then that'll be
a good way to get started.
The second key thing about this week was reconnection. I pinged Michael Nielsen and Jennifer Dodd after I finished "Made to Stick", which they had highly recommended to me. I also Cc'd Driss Benzakour, who shares my interest in business books. I had fun chatting with him when he called me to catch up. Gabriel Mansour also e-mailed to say that he missed my tea parties, so we're going to have another one on Dec 9 (Sunday). I also had webcam conversations with Clair Ching, Kendra Castillo, and my mom. I briefly got to talk to my dad, too. Oh, and I got plenty of cheers and feedback on the first chapter of my book. Yay! =)
The third key thing about this week (ah, gotta love the structure of threes) was that I learned more about the power of stories. Thanks to
- a previous conversation with my mentor about passion for the business
- a corporate learning program on foundational competencies that mentioned that passion for the business does not have a formal curriculum or training materials
- a comment I posted on an internal article about social computing, sharing how people's blog stories helped me fall in love with the company, and
- two books, "Made to Stick" and "Elements of Persuasion",
I saw how the stories people told through their blogs helped me discover deep and wonderful things about the company I've joined, and how my blog can help me practice storytelling. I'll try to tell more stories, and I hope to practice some of the things I've learned from the books I read. =)
My goals for next week are:
- Talk to other people about the experience of being new to a business, and write up the advice they give
- Set up the team space for my second client engagement
- Write Facebook tips for middle-school girls and help with other initiatives around the company, and
- Cook a nice, hearty soup. =)
Random Emacs symbol: bbdb/gnus-split-nomatch-function – Variable: *This function will be called after searching the BBDB if no place to


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The Soundweb Contrio HiQnet Server offers advanced system control and scripting, centralized system management and an integrated media server.
The Soundweb Contrio HiQnet Server is configurable through HiQnet™ Audio Architect. A rich palette of logic objects and a "drag and drop" method of configuration provide a simple and familiar design environment. In addition to traditional Soundweb London logic objects, Lua-based scripting allows sophisticated application-specific logic functionality to be deployed.
System-wide presets and cross-device links within a HiQnet system can be hosted on the HiQnet Server, placing them in a central location on a powerful control device.
The Soundweb Contrio HiQnet Server enables self-healing within a HiQnet system. The HiQnet Server is able to detect a device going offline and a device of the same type coming online. This situation would occur in the case of a maintenance swap-out. The HiQnet Server automatically sets the addressing of the replacement device and sends down the correct configuration. Since the HiQnet Server is able to communicate with standard compatible Ethernet switches, the physical switch ports can be identified. This means that multiple devices can go offline and be replaced, each obtaining the correct addressing and configuration upon connection.
Capturing event logs from an integrated system is often useful for characterizing system usage or for troubleshooting. The HiQnet Server aggregates event log data from system components and its vast storage ensures no data is ever lost.
The Soundweb Contrio HiQnet Server allows the simultaneous playback of multiple-channel audio media via its logic system from the integrated solid-state hard disk drive. Using the logic system, audio media can be scheduled or triggered by events. The Contrio Server uses Audinate's Dante Virtual Soundcard for media playback.


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The Chap Manifesto
1. THOU SHALT ALWAYS WEAR TWEED. No other fabric says so defiantly: I am a man of panache, savoir-faire and devil-may-care, and I will not be served Continental lager beer under any circumstances.
2 THOU SHALT NEVER NOT SMOKE. Health and Safety "executives" and jobsworth medical practitioners keep trying to convince us that smoking is bad for the lungs/heart/skin/eyebrows, but we all know that smoking a bent apple billiard full of rich Cavendish tobacco raises one's general sense of well-being to levels unimaginable by the aforementioned spoilsports.
3 THOU SHALT ALWAYS BE COURTEOUS TO THE LADIES. A gentleman is never truly seated on an omnibus or railway carriage: he is merely keeping the seat warm for when a lady might need it. Those who take offence at being offered a seat are not really Ladies.
4 THOU SHALT NEVER, EVER, WEAR PANTALOONS DE NIMES. When you have progressed beyond fondling girls in the back seats of cinemas, you can stop wearing jeans. Wear fabrics appropriate to your age, and, who knows, you might even get a quick fumble in your box at the opera.
5 THOU SHALT ALWAYS DOFF ONE'S HAT. Alright, so you own a couple of trilbies. Good for you - but it's hardly going to change the world. Once you start actually lifting them off your head when greeting, departing or simply saluting passers-by, then the revolution will really begin.
6 THOU SHALT NEVER FASTEN THE LOWEST BUTTON ON THY WESKIT. Look, we don't make the rules, we simply try to keep them going. This one dates back to Edward VII, sufficient reason in itself to observe it.
7 THOU SHALT ALWAYS SPEAK PROPERLY. It's quite simple really. Instead of saying "Yo, wassup?", say "How do you do?"
8 THOU SHALT NEVER WEAR PLIMSOLLS WHEN NOT DOING SPORT. Nor even when doing sport. Which you shouldn't be doing anyway. Except cricket.
9 THOU SHALT ALWAYS WORSHIP AT THE TROUSER PRESS. At the end of each day, your trousers should be placed in one of Mr. Corby's magical contraptions, and by the next morning your creases will be so sharp that they will start a riot on the high street.
10 THOU SHALT ALWAYS CULTIVATE INTERESTING FACIAL HAIR. By interesting we mean moustaches, not beards.


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"We do get to throw our leg over some pretty blue-groovy motorcycles here at Cycle World (the Gregg's Customs R1 comes to mind), but even that seems a bit tame compared to the Ducati Desmosedici Street Tracker Roland Sands cooked up. (Matter of fact, the Gregg's bike helped inspire the Desmo.) When we got wind of this build, a little persistent pressure got us in on the ground floor—that and the fact that Roland and yours truly go way back into the mists of the early '90s at Willow Springs, and share an addiction for sideways cycling.
We had high hopes of rolling the bike out for its debut at the Indy Mile this past August, but that race was, sadly, cancelled, and a more modest plan evolved to get in some laps at the classic Ventura County Raceway, right on the beach in SoCal. Seeing as how RSD went to all the trouble to make this bike road legal (and since that's where owner Justyn Amstutz says he'll be riding it a lot), I also took it for a little shakedown cruise on the street.
On public roads, this Ducati turns heads with its classic livery and outright UFO appeal—and it stretched my neck with its 990cc V-Four GP-bike performance. It stretched my ear canals too: The D16RR desmo scream echoing off Ventura's coastal foothills raised quite a racket. (Hearing it from the patio of Rusty's Pizza on Main Street below, lucky owner Amstutz, builders Roland Sands and "Welding" Rodney Aguiar, and Thirdwheel John Burns would've sworn there was some sort of offshore powerboat race going on if they hadn't known better.) Dirty Duc's midrange feels comparable to what your typical liter-bike makes at peak, and it just keeps building till 14,200 rpm. If you were waiting for the rev limiter to arrest-hook your wheelie, it's a good idea to have a back-up plan and your right foot covering the brake. On the other hand, thanks to upright ergos and the wide Fatbar, it's comfortable to ride and easy to keep between the curbs around town; short-shifting keeps the decibels down to a dull roar no louder than a brace of open-piped Harleys.
Hopping the 101 freeway to the Ventura Fairgrounds is a trip back in time—and it's also time for the hard work to begin. How will this untested $200k, 200-horsepower Duc of dirt work with a fraction of traction? The vision I'd been falling asleep to for weeks prior involved hucking the Duc into smooth dirt corners and letting those ponies eat their way grazefully out of the exits—but when we rolled up, the 1/5-mile oval was in sad shape, with a wavy surface and clay balls of various sizes, from pea to bowling, everywhere.
But, okay, the photographers and crew were all there along with Roland and the others, so what was I gonna do? There's a reason why the oldest bike in flat tracking (H-D XR-750) is usually the best; these things take years to develop, and it's very much not all about horsepower. With very little flywheel, enough power for two very stout flat-track bikes, suspension on its maiden voyage and a track like a marble factory killing floor, the bike was a handful and I'm amazed I made it around as many laps as I did. And that's all I've got to say about that.
On a bigger, faster, perfectly prepped track like the Indy or Springfield Mile, it might've been a different, more graceful story. But cooped up on Ventura's treacherous short track, Desmo D's massive potential, I'm sad to admit, went mostly untapped. Having said that, the show must go on, and I did give the bird my best shot.
Anyway, dirt-track glory or no, there really and truly is nothing else on the street that flies like this RSD Desmo Street Tracker—and after watching his big-ticket Ducati flash repeatedly before his eyes, that's where Justyn Amstutz says the Dirty Bird will be indigenous from now on. (He'll change his mind, eventually.) For the full story on where the bike came from, how it was built and some history of Ducati dirt track twins from way back in the day, pick up the December issue of Cycle World."


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Do you bend over your computer all day programming? Do you get stressed out, neck ache, shoulder pain, mouse wrist, back ache?
CF Yoga can help! This will be a 30 minute yoga session that you can do in a chair - so no need for fancy yoga clothes or yoga mat. And you can take these exercises back to your office to do during the day to help keep you relaxed and healthy during the rest of the year.
When: Thursday 11:45am - 12:15pm (after the day two keynote)
Where: Faulkner
(This bonus session is not on the schedule)


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How an investor who turned me down ended up sleeping on my couch
September 22, 2012starting up
Last week I had the great pleasure of grabbing dinner with Jon Bradford, and having him stop over at my place on his way to speak on a panel at an event in Jerusalem.
The story of how I know Jon is a crazy one, and one which whenever I think about always reminds me of the power of being on great terms with as many people as I find myself being in contact with.
Brief contact years ago
I first met Jon several years ago, when I was working on my previous startup. At that time, I'd just graduated and had jumped straight into the startup scene with a lot of passion to build something. I had no clue about what was involved in creating a startup, and ultimately the startup I worked on at that time was not successful.
I was very naive and looking back at some of the things I did and the way I wrote emails or thought about building the startup leaves me feeling grateful for how much I've been able to learn in the last few years. I was, however, always looking for opportunities to meet others in the startup scene (small as it was in the north of the UK), and so I created my own startup meetup and attended many others. I also tried to continually push myself out of my comfort zone, and I met Jon when I pitched the previous startup at an event in Manchester (something very uncomfortable for me at the time).
Startup accelerator rejection
At the same event I pitched my startup, Jon spoke about the startup accelerator he was creating. It was modelled on TechStars and was unique in the UK, especially in the north. Since the first accelerator around 2 years ago, Jon has gone on to help start 12 accelerators from Montreal to Moscow and runs 5: Springboard, ignite100, Startup Wise Guys, Eleven and TexDrive. I think there may well be even more on the way, too.
After hearing Jon speak about the accelerator, I spoke with my co-founder at the time Oo Nwoye and we decided it made a lot of sense to apply. We felt like we had a pretty good chance, especially since we were moving fast and had some users. A couple of weeks later, we got our rejection email and felt quite disheartened. We pushed forward regardless and ended up getting into a smaller scale incubator with a grant in Birmingham before eventually deciding that the startup wasn't working out.
I exchanged a few emails with Jon at this time, and I remember a feeling of a lot of mutual respect. Despite the rejection, things were very amicable, and I'm happy that was the case.
No contact but a lot of progress
After that short-lived connection, the two years following were defining for myself, and evidently now with 12 accelerators he is part of, they were two short years with much progress for Jon too. For myself, I realised that the previous startup wasn't working out (Jon made the right call) and moved on to Buffer, where applying my learnings of lean startup got the startup off to a great start. Since then, we've gone through AngelPad, brought great investors and advisors on board and grown Buffer to 325,000 users, an $800,000 annual revenue run rate and a team of 7.
An email to kick things off again
One of the most fascinating things about Jon is just how good he is at email. He shared with me his calculation about how much email he does, and the result was that whilst working (which is by no means any normal working hours) he sends an email every 6 minutes. Jon is someone I'm very inspired by to become much better at email. With this kind of volume, it's no surprise that even after not being in touch for 2 years, his "touch base" email was the following, in its entirety:
Hey dude
Congratulations on AngelPad and follow-on funding - when you are next back in the UK - let me know and can catchup and grab a coffee/beer.
I know now that even the "Hey dude" was a slight exception for Jon. He gets straight to the point and this is something I'm trying to do more and more, too.
"Could I crash over?"
I'd been in touch a few times after we reconnected via email, and Jon introduced some smart people to me.
Around a month ago I got another classic Jon Bradford sized email:
What are you doing on the evening of Monday 10th? Could I crash over?
I jumped at the opportunity to get some of Jon's time and learn from his experiences and accumulated pattern recognition. We grabbed dinner in the evening, and then headed back to the apartment where Jon made some amazing introductions for me.
This whole experience made me realise how great it is to know lots of people, even if only as acquaintances initially for a long time.
Have you had any experiences like mine of an unlikely connection becoming something very powerful?
Disclaimer: I'm a mentor at ignite100 and know a few startups who've gone through Springboard.
Photo credit: Andrew Ferguson


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Minimize activity in your kitchen by cooking your turkey dinner outdoors
BARRIE, Ont. — There are few dinners on the Canadian calendar as iconic as the Thanksgiving dinner, with a golden turkey at the centre of the table with all of the bounty of the fall harvest for fixings.
A lot of effort goes into getting the dinner prepared, and with a house full of family and friends it can create a chaotic scene in your kitchen. But by taking your cooking to your backyard grill, you can ease the activity in your kitchen and leave the house for socializing and enjoying your company.
"Your backyard grill is, essentially, an outdoor oven with a versatility you simply can't replicate in your kitchen," says Stephen Schroeter, Senior Vice President of Napoleon. "You can add new flavours and bring a whole new experience to your traditional Thanksgiving dinner by cooking the entire meal on your barbecue."
Stephen offers these pointers for cooking your Thanksgiving dinner on your grill.
The Main Course. Thanksgiving and turkey are near synonymous. Start by preparing your grill for indirect cooking, and placing a drip pan with water above the unlit burners, but below the cooking grate (if possible, try to leave a space between the cooking grates where you can fit a baster). As the barbecue warms up — aim for a steady temperature of 350°F — get your bird ready. Even though you are cooking it on your grill, proceed as if you were doing it in your oven. Stuff it with your preferred mixture, season the skin (Napoleon suggests rubbing the outside of the turkey with butter and then liberally seasoning it with coarse salt, fresh ground black pepper and fresh thyme, sage and rosemary from your herb garden), truss the legs and, when the barbecue reaches the desired temperature, place it on the grill. Check and baste it every hour. Cook until it reaches the desired internal temperature — 165°F, or about 20 minutes of cooking time per pound. Let it rest after your remove it from the heat – but don't turn your grill off yet.
Be creative. If you want to bring new flavours to your turkey, fill a smoker tube with apple wood chips and place on one of the lit burners. The natural smokey flavour is something you simply can't replicate in your oven. If you can't access the drip tray with your baster, try making a basting liquid with melted butter and white wine.
The Side Dish. Save the stress on your stove top by doing the potatoes on your barbecue. Wrap your chopped potatoes in tinfoil, with a liberal amount of butter or olive oil (or both!), fresh chopped chives and a minced clove or two of garlic. Place the foil packet on the top shelf and leave it for about anhour, maybe flipping it once. Once they are ready, you are free to serve as is or to mash them up with some butter, cream cheese and milk.
The Vegetables. The barbecue brings a whole new flavour experience to seasonal harvest vegetables. Brushed with olive oil and lightly seasoned with salt and pepper, the charred, smokey flavours are unlike anything you can do on your stove. Place them directly over low to medium heat, or use a grill top wok to cook up a medley of peppers, zucchini and carrots. Do you have a side burner? Use it to boil corn on the cob. Or grill the corn in its husks.
The Gravy. The concoction of the turkey drippings (be careful when removing the drip tray from the grill, as it will be hot!) and the white wine-and-butter basting liquid is an excellent base for an incredible turkey gravy. Once the turkey is removed from the grill and is resting, turn on all the burners and place the drip tray on top. As it comes to a gentle boil, whisk together some flour and chicken stock until all the lumps are gone, then whisk that into the drippings. Keep stirring until it is smooth, skim off the fat and pour into your gravy boat.
Napoleon was recognized as one of Canada's Top 50 Best Managed Companies in 2014, an annual distinction sponsored by CIBC World Markets, Deloitte, The National Post, Queen's School of Business and CEO Forum. For more information, please visit www.napoleonproducts.com. Follow Napoleon on Twitter @Follow_Napoleon and Like it Facebook.
About the Napoleon Group of Companies:
It all began in 1976 when a small steel fabrication business launched by Wolfgang Schroeter started manufacturing steel railings in Barrie, Ontario, Canada. At that time, no one could imagine the incredible future that lay ahead for Wolf Steel Ltd. and eventually Napoleon® Fireplaces and Napoleon® Gourmet Grills.
Since the first wood stove rolled off the production line more than 35 years ago, WolfSteel's commitment was to be distinctive and successful in everything they do. Napoleon's commitment to producing quality products combined with honest, reliable service has proven to be successfulframework to ensuring the continued rapid growth of the company. Napoleon® is an ISO9001 – 2008 registered company and now operates with 1.4 million square feet of manufacturing space and employs more than 1,000associates.
Napoleon® is North America's largest privately owned manufacturer of quality wood and gas fireplaces (inserts and stoves), gourmet gas and charcoal grills, outdoor living products and a complete line of Heating & Cooling equipment. Napoleon has been named one of Canada's Top 50 Best Managed Companies, an annual distinction sponsored by CIBC World Markets, Deloitte, The National Post, Queen's School of Business and CEO Forum.


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Well, well. It's that time, once again. The shortlist's out and from that list I've read only one: Anne Enright's The Forgotten Waltz.
There But for the... didn't make the cut, somehow. A bit puzzled but I knew State of Wonder would make it through. It was one of my original poorly-informed guesses, though if you look back so was There But for the... So, let's not look back, shall we?
Couldn't be losing my touch, could I?! Perish the thought. My brain is positively catching fire, I'm taxing it so heavily. If my brain were the American Colonies and I were Britain I'd be dumping all my tea in protest.
Now, the real question that keeps me on the edge of my seat is, "Will I even try to read any more of these before the announcement in late May?" Because, really, what could be more interesting than that. I am bent over with the weight of it, my dear internets. Sure, the IPPY judging will soon be done but I have another event to start promoting between now and June: Booktopia, Oxford, MS 2012.
I'm actually going to make one of these literary shindigs for a change; if you don't think I'll milk that for all its worth you haven't been hanging out here long at all. I'll be meeting authors like Jesmyn Ward, Kevin Brockmeier, biographers of Eudora Welty and Margaret Mitchell... The list goes on and it's positively stellar. A lot to do between now and mid-June: books to be read, authors to interview, research to be done...
But back to the Oranges.
Cynthia Ozick. Oh dear lord, she's a precious gem. Go back to one of her earlier works like The Shawl, or The Puttermesser Papers and you'll see this woman's as much Nobel-worthy as Orange Prize recipient material. She may even be too lofty to win. Is that blasphemous?
Anne Enright. Lovely writer! Adore her. But she does have that Booker already... I know, it's not supposed to have any bearing on anything but for my money one award per writer (with a few Sebastian Barry exceptions)until all have something to put in a trophy case is sufficient. Did I love her book? Why, yes! But I wasn't betting on it making the shortlist, either! It tells a damn good story, very quirky-in-a-good-way, extremely fresh from the standpoint of the plot framework. Loved it.
That leaves the two I'm unfamiliar with: Esi Edugyan and Georgina Harding. The two Dark Horse candidates. And this is killing me!
Will a relative unknown come from behind for a surprise victory or will Patchett or Miller claim the £ 30,000 Prize? Option three: will Cynthia Ozick win because she's had such a long career, with such a string of beautiful books, and deserves recognition?
I honestly didn't expect to be this frazzled. I usually skim across the top of the list and when the divining rod points I call it. This year's a totally different experience. But I really think Patchett, Miller or Ozick will prevail. In that order, too, as far as likelihood.
So, here are the remaining events leading up to the BIG DAY:
- Orange and Grazia writers' evening at Southbank Centre: 28 May
- Orange Prize Shortlist Readings at Southbank Centre: 29 May
- Orange Prize for Fiction awards ceremony: 30 May
Here are all the books I could read, given time:
State of Wonder
Foreign Bodies
The Song of Achilles
I've read the Enright, so that leaves:
Painter of Silence - not released in the Colonies until September!!
Half Blood Blues - thought I owned it but I can't actually FIND it in the maelstrom Chez Moi
These are my unknowns, the two I may be unable to test drive. Internets, this is a frightening proposition.
At least I know I won't be bored the entire month of May. There is that. Now I'm trotting off to find reactions re: the Shortlist, blogs with gossip and the like.
Blog dedicated to reading the Oranges:
And one for 2012, in particular:
Orange Prize 2012 Shadow Group
Read on, my internets!


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2013-14 Women's Swimming |
Howard Hunte
Head Coach |
Carlye Ellis
Graduate Assistant |
Full Roster |
2013-14 Women's Swimming |
Howard Hunte
Head Coach |
Carlye Ellis
Graduate Assistant |
Full Roster |
Howard Hunte was named the head coach of the Valparaiso University men's and women's swimming teams in April of 2008 and took over the program in July of 2008.
Since his arrival at the helm of the Crusaders, the program's record books have been almost completely rewritten. On the men's side, 18 of 19 swimming records have been set under Hunte's watch, while on the women's side, 13 of 19 records have been broken. The 2014-15 campaign was extremely successful in that regard, as both the men's and the women's team set eight new school records apiece, including breaking a combined 14 records at the Horizon League Championships. Over his seven seasons at Valpo, Hunte's swimmers have been a success in the classroom as well. 10 men and seven women have earned Academic All-Horizon League honors, while Ansel Hillmer was named a CoSIDA First Team Academic All-District V honoree in 2009.
A four-year letterwinner for Fairmont State University from 2002-2006, Hunte served as team captain for three seasons. He mainly swam the backstroke and butterfly, and was part of setting a pool record in the 200 medley relay for the Fighting Falcons. He earned All-West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference accolades while at Fairmont State.
Growing up in Venezuela, Hunte was ranked among the top-five backstrokers in the country as a teenager. He then moved to the United States in 2000 and competed for the Fort Lauderdale Aquatics club.
Hunte arrived at Valpo with a wide array of coaching experience as well. He was the head swim coach for the Fairmont Area swim team in 2006-2007. With Fairmont, he was responsible for workouts for swimmers ages 13-17. He also handled all of the meet entries for the club, supervised the assistant coaches for various age groups, and was the representative for all parent board meetings. Hunte took over the head coaching position after serving a an assistant coach for the swim team from 2003-2006.
Hunte also was an assistant swim coach for the West Virginia Southern Zone Team in 2005 and 2006 that competed in Houston, Texas and Atlanta, Georgia.
While working on his master's degree, Hunte interned in strength and conditioning at West Virginia University during the 2007-2008 season.
Hunte graduated from Fairmont State in 2006 with a bachelor of science degree in physical education, with a minor in health. He went on to earn his masters of science in athletic coaching education at West Virginia in 2008.
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Create a Website Account - Manage notification subscriptions, save form progress and more.
A public auction is held each year in the Spring, for more information contact the Wayne County Treasurer's Office.
Show All Answers
Your taxes are calculated using your taxable assessment x the tax rate plus any special assessments.
Check the website for the date paid or check with your tax collector to see if any re-levies are shown.
If your taxes remain unpaid for two years the County of Wayne can foreclose.
Contact your assessor.
If you purchased the property after March 1st, you will not receive a tax bill until the next billing cycle. As a property owner, it is your responsibility to pay taxes in a timely manner. If you have not received a tax bill contact your Tax Collector as soon as possible.


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Advanced Micro Devices (Nasdaq: AMD)demonstrated its upcoming mobile chips for thin-and-light laptops, which the company said will lead to cheaper but equally speedy alternatives to Intel's expensive ultrabooks.
AMD said its chips, code-named Trinity, draw around 17 watts of power, roughly the same as upcoming ultrabook chips based on Intel's Ivy Bridge microarchitecture. Laptops based on Trinity are being shown at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and will be released later this year.
The starting price for Trinity laptops may be around US$500 or even lower depending on the configuration, AMD executives said at the show. That compares favorably to Intel's ultrabooks, which are currently priced starting at $800, though Intel hopes to bring that down to $699 by the year end.
"We believe that we can actually support (thin-and-light laptops) with equal or better performance in the same class of machine at a lower price point," said Raymond Drumbeck, marketing manager for AMD.
AMD has coined the term "ultrathin" to describe a class of lightweight laptops based on its chips. It can't call them ultrabooks, which is a term trademarked by Intel, Drumbeck said.
The Trinity chips for ultrathin laptops will come in dual-core and quad-core options, Drumbeck said. The chips will deliver the same performance but consume half the power of AMD's A-series chips, code-named Llano, which are currently used in standard laptops. Trinity will consume the same amount of power but outperform the current AMD E-series and C-series chips used in ultrathin laptops, though the chip maker did not share detailed performance data.
AMD will also release a version of Trinity for standard-sized laptops. The chips will be 50 per cent faster on graphics and 25 percent faster on CPU performance, Drumbeck said.
The Trinity chip combines an x86 CPU and graphics processor, and will be made using the 32-nanometer process. The CPU cores are based on a new architecture called Piledriver, and the integrated graphics processor will support Microsoft's DirectX 11 graphics technology. The company last year released new chips for high-end desktops based on its brand new Bulldozer architecture.
Laptops with AMD chips tend to be priced lower, and the price advantage is one reason the chip-maker has been gaining market share over Intel. During the third quarter last year, Intel had an 80.3 per cent market share, a drop from its 80.6 per cent share during the third quarter in 2010, while AMD's market share was 18.8 per cent, growing from 18.3 per cent.
AMD did not comment on the actual release of the chips, but further information will be released in the next few weeks. The chip maker also plans new tablet and desktop chips for this year, and more information on its chip strategy will be shared at the company's analyst meeting on February 2.


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There's just nothing quite like that new custom skateboard smell. Today we got one of our own designs printed on a Custom Longboard for some serious downhill cruising, and I have to say it came out COMPLETELY AWESOME. Snapped a couple photos of this beauty before and after putting the trucks on.
How to Create This Custom Skateboard
(With Our Whatever Skateboard Design App):
This deck was designed here on the site a couple weeks ago with our board designer app. It took about 15 minutes playing around with settings and effects. Here's the steps I used:
- Backgound (Step 1): using the circuitry background from the stock library in the design app
- Upload Images (step 2): uploaded a color paint splatter image found online and the One Giant Media "OG" logo in black and white
- Set Some Blend Modes (Optional, While Adjusting any Image): setting the blend mode in the "cool effects" panel on the OG logo and splatter to different options until it looked like this. Blend modes allow the images to be similar to transparent, but with different modes that make the colors mix in interesting ways.
- Added Text (Step 3): "Whatever" Text at bottom
I have to say the pictures don't do the super crisp and vibrant print justice but it is SO clean with such good resolution the whole image really pops and the board looks amazing.
Here's a link to this OG skateboard design if you'd like to try to customize it, change it (edit the text to your own or whatever), add to it, or just buy this sweet deck as is – WHATEVER!


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Praise be to Allah.
This question is rather ambiguous but may be discussed as follows.
If he said, "By Allah, I will do such and such," or "By Allah, I will help you to do such and such," or "By Allah, he did not do such and such" -- and he did that for the purpose of reconciliation, then if he swore an oath for the purpose of reconciliation in a way that did not harm anyone, there is nothing wrong with it. [So he could say:] "By Allah, So and so said such and such about you… By Allah, such and such a group praised you and thanked you and say that you are their friend," in order to bring about reconciliation between them.
But if he said, "By Allah, I will visit you, or I will help you with something if you reconcile, and stop this dispute," then in this case he has to fulfil what he promised them, because promises are important and one of the characteristics of the believer is that he fulfils his promises. Allah said concerning Ismaa'eel (interpretation of the meaning):
"And mention in the Book (the Qur'ân) Ismâ'îl (Ishmael). Verily, he was true to what he promised, and he was a Messenger, (and) a Prophet"
[Maryam 19:54].
He should not break his promise, because breaking a promise is one of the characteristics of the hypocrites, and when a hypocrite makes a promise, he breaks it. He has to offer expiation if he did break his promise, even though he acquired one of the characteristics of the hypocrites by breaking his promise. He still has to offer kafaarat yameen (expiation for breaking an oath), because he said, "By Allah, I will visit you on such and such a day," or "By Allaah, I will help you," but he did not do that, so he has to face the consequences and he may be sinning according to those who say that it is obligatory to fulfil oaths based on the apparent meaning of the evidence. Or he may not be sinning, but he has acquired one of the characteristics of the hypocrites that he should not have acquired.
The apparent meaning of the shar'i evidence is that fulfilling promises is something obligatory, and that breaking them is something haraam and is one of the characteristics of the hypocrites. It is not appropriate for one who seeks to bring about reconciliation to break his promise, because this will affect future attempts at reconciliation. So he should never break his promise; rather he should keep his promise and strive hard to do that.
This also applies to other oaths that are sworn falsely in order to bring about reconciliation and which do not harm anyone. There is nothing wrong with doing that for this purpose of reconciliation, because of the apparent meaning of the saheeh hadeeth narrated from Umm Kulthoom bint 'Uqbah ibn Abi Ma'eet who said: I heard the Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) say: "He is not a liar who reconciles between people and conveys something good or says something good." She said: I never heard him allowing a concession for any kind of lying except in three cases: when reconciling between people, during war, and when a man speaks to his wife or a woman speaks to her husband.
Lying which does not harm people is permissible in cases of reconciliation, but it should benefit the people among whom reconciliation is sought, and it should not harm anyone else. End quote.
Shaykh 'Abd al-'Azeez ibn Baaz (may Allah have mercy on him)


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Say we have a constraint system with second-class constraints $\chi_N(q,p)=0$. To define Dirac brackets we need the Poisson brackets of these constraints: $C_{NM}=\{\chi_N(q,p),\chi_M(q,p)\}_P$ . Is the matrix $C_{NM}$ independent of $q,p$?
The motivation of the question is that when I tried to verify Dirac brackets satisfy Jacobi identity, it seems I need to assume $C_{NM}$ doesn't depend on canonical coordinates(To be honest, I'm not 100% sure if this assumption is necessary, because I did not try very hard on the verification without this assumption because one side of the Jacobi identity will become horribly complicated). Besides, for some simple examples(e.g. a massive vector field), it does turn out to be the case.
EDIT: I think I know where I made mistakes, somewhere in the calculation I needed some terms to be 0, I was searching in my brain only all the strong equalities, while in fact some weak equalities could help.


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Top 10 Best Drumming Performances of All Time
10 Creepy Old Mysteries We Will Probably Never Solve
10 Movie Scenes That Really Happened without the Help of CGI
10 Wacky Comics Who Made a Mark as Musicians
10 Women Who Broke Down Barriers to Break the News
10 Tales about Historical Figures and Their Living Descendants
10 Totally Normal Foods That Were Once Considered Aphrodisiacs
10 Films That Influenced Star Wars
10 Haunted Places to Visit in Kansas
10 Ungilded Realities of Life in the Gilded Age
Top 10 Best Drumming Performances of All Time
10 Creepy Old Mysteries We Will Probably Never Solve
Who's Behind Listverse?
Jamie Frater
Head Editor
Jamie founded Listverse due to an insatiable desire to share fascinating, obscure, and bizarre facts. He has been a guest speaker on numerous national radio and television stations and is a five time published author.
More About Us10 Movie Scenes That Really Happened without the Help of CGI
10 Wacky Comics Who Made a Mark as Musicians
10 Women Who Broke Down Barriers to Break the News
10 Tales about Historical Figures and Their Living Descendants
10 Totally Normal Foods That Were Once Considered Aphrodisiacs
10 Films That Influenced Star Wars
10 Haunted Places to Visit in Kansas
10 More Mysterious Conspiracy Theories
To date we have around seven conspiracy theory lists or lists containing entries related to such. This new list is a welcome addition as it has been some time since our last one and they are always extremely fascinating topics to read about. The world is full of conspiracy theories – many of which contain elements of mystery. This will definitely not be the last list of this type.
Theories surrounding the Ararat Anomaly arose from a single black and white photograph taken in 1949 by a USAF recon plane performing routine intelligence gathering of the Ararat massif, which was in an area of military interest at the time. This famous photo shows a shoulder of Mount Ararat, only 1300 feet from the summit, covered in snow, with an odd-looking object on the very precipice of a steep slope.
Conspiracy theorists, many of them Biblical literalists, claim that the odd-looking object if Noah's Ark, which the Bible states "came to rest on the mountains of Ararat" after the Great Flood. Since the Bible pluralizes "mountains," the question still stands, "Which mountain of the area?" Mount Ararat is the tallest of the Armenian Plateau, but the whole area of Eastern Turkey and Western Armenia is mountainous, and Mount Ararat is actually two peaks, with the main peak a prominence for miles around.
The anomaly appears to be a very rounded elongation teetering on the edge of a slope, buried under ice and snow, and it has so roused the curiosity of the U. S. government that planes and satellites have been used to take numerous photographs of it, not all of which, the theory claims, have been made public. The best public views of it can be found on the Internet for free, and the anomaly does look very much like a big boat, approximately 1,000 feet long and 200 to 300 feet wide, which roughly matches the Bible's description of the Ark.
A close-up of it appears to show two sets of three "prongs," one set on each end, and this close-up does look very man-made. Why the U. S. government will not divulge anything further than what is available is not universally established, but the theory claims that in order to do so, the government would have to declassify top-secret spy satellites, which would set a lot of unwanted media against them in terms of invasion of privacy. The U. S. does have satellites that can photograph a postage stamp from 600 miles overhead, but there are no such photographs of the anomaly.
Catharism is a branch of Christianity similar to Gnosticism, and the details of it would take too long to enumerate. Its heyday lasted from the 1000s to the 1300s, and during that time, Cathars throughout Europe so irritated the Roman Catholic Church that the Church first tried to convert the Cathars without violence. When that didn't work, they initiated a full-force Crusade, the Albigensian Crusade, which brought 20 years of warfare against the Cathar movement. During that Crusade, the fortress of Beziers was besieged throughout most of 1209, at the end of which, the Catholic army won and slaughtered every single man, woman, and child in the city – at least 7,000, possibly as many as 20,000. The leader of the army stated, "Kill them all. The Lord will recognize His own."
In the end, the Cathars were very effectively suppressed. So why in the world did the Catholic Church pursue this end so violently? Because, according to the theory, the Cathars had copies of various texts sacred to them and not Catholicism, including The Book of the Two Principles, and the Gospel of the Secret Supper. These and other texts depicted Jesus teaching that reincarnation is real, that Heaven and Hell do not exist, that the God of the Old Testament was instead Satan, and Almighty God is either Jesus or his Father in Heaven, but not the Old Testament God. This is a central tenet of Gnosticism also. The most earth-shattering point of this theory is that Jesus may have taught that reincarnation is real, leading theorists to speculate about who on Earth right now is Jesus, and when he will make his presence known again. These apocryphal texts sacred only to Catharism are commercially available, most falling under the header of Gnosticism.
This theory ties in with the 2012 Doomsday theories. It claims that there is a planet the size of Jupiter, named Nibiru or Planet X, currently as far from us as the Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter, and that it is on a collision course with Earth in 2012. The theory goes that the IRAS infrared satellite launched in 1983 took a photograph of this object, which was finally leaked to the Internet in 2009. The photograph was explained away by NASA as showing 9 galaxies and some intergalactic cirrus, but no other objects.
The theory goes on to claim that the U. S. government funded the construction of a very powerful telescope at the South Pole to take pictures of Nibiru and track it. This telescope is claimed by NASA to be a radio telescope which cannot take pictures, but the theory ignores this to go on: Nibiru cannot currently be seen because it is behind the Sun.
It is impossible to debunk this theory, not because it may or may not be true, but because conspiracy theories don't have to respect the authority of a government, especially that of the U. S. Any "debunking" of evidence in support of Nibiru is immediately denounced as a lie. Nibiru is on its way, and its impact will obliterate Earth.
At 8:50 AM, on 7 July 2005, three suicide bombers, two of Pakistani descent, and one Jamaican, blew themselves up onboard three separate subway trains, killing a total of 42 people, including the bombers. At 9:47, less than an hour later, the number 30 double-decker bus, traveling in Tavistock Square, blew up because of a fourth bomber, killing 14 people, including himself. These are the facts as presented in news accounts in the days and weeks following.
The conspiracy theorists are not convinced. In fact, they are convinced of the opposite: the four bombers were not the culprits, not bombers, and merely innocent civilians along with all the other victims. The real killers, according to the theory, were members of the UK government's security, including MI5, and that PM Tony Blair, and even the Queen, knew all about it.
So why cover it up? Al-Qaeda even took responsibility for it in a post-taped video appearing on Al Jazeera, but this video was proven by British authorities as having been edited after the attacks to include them, in order to take credit for them. The bombers were officially dissociated with al-Qaeda, but the theory simply uses this video as one of many proofs that something fishy was going on.
Once the term "cover-up" enters a conspiracy theory, the theorists almost always diverge, because a government may have a great many things to cover up. Evidence of aliens on the subway trains and the number 30 bus; evidence of cooperation between the British government and al-Qaeda (whose video response they tried to shut up); and this lister's personal favorite sub-theory, that the four "bombers" were really just tabloid photographers who had photographed Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, the future wife of Prince William, having sex with Queen Elizabeth's horses. No joke, that's one of the branches of this conspiracy theory.
This theory centers on one man in particular, Samuel Abraham Goudsmit (1902-1978). Goudsmit was a nuclear physicist who headed Operation Alsos as a branch off the Manhattan Project. While America considered it vitally important to beat the Nazis at making the atomic bomb, they found it equally important to hinder the Germans as far as possible.
The Allied war effort saw to that magnificently by bombing Nazi ball bearing plants. Hardly any machinery in the world functioned without ball bearings, and while the Nazis attempted to research nuclear physics, Goudsmit organized a spy ring to report on how close the Germans were coming to the bomb. His published reports stated that they never got close, but the truth, according to this conspiracy theory, is much more insidious.
Goudsmit is said to have discovered that the Nazi nuclear physicists, led by Otto Hahn and Werner Heisenberg, actually built the bomb, or at least discovered all the technology involved in building one and were in the process of doing so, which Hitler intended to use on London, England. In order to counter this, Goudsmit informed the U. S. Government, which found it more promising to buy the Nazi scientists off than to carpet bomb the areas where nuclear testing was occurring. Additionally, Goudsmit had been unable to ascertain from the scientists where this testing was being done. After the War, laboratories were discovered all over Germany, which means bombing would not have been feasible.
So Goudsmit was given millions of dollars to bribe the Nazi scientists into coming to America, with the bomb and all research and materiel, and those scientists partnered with Robert Oppenheimer, Enrico Fermi, and Edward Teller, and enabled the Americans to finish their fission research, then build bombs. The Trinity Test of 16 July 1945 is claimed by this theory to have been the original Nazi bomb.
Steven Greer is the central focus of this one. The theory incorporates all known extraterrestrial conspiracies, then takes them one step further. Greer claims to have been contacted by aliens with good news. He founded the Project in 1992 as a convention for other people who claim to have been contacted by aliens (Trekkers do the same thing, really).
Meetings of this Project occur every year in various American cities, are not secret at all, and even boast some fairly authoritative government agents as members, all attempting to make the U. S. government take the hood off the public's head and "disclose" the truth about extraterrestrial existence.
The one step further is as follows: Greer claims the aliens' good news to him and others they have contacted is that they are on their way from distant planets (more than one), and that they come in peace to share scientific, medical, and cultural knowledge. Most importantly that a specific aspect of their and our planet histories is identical the worlds over – that a certain member of each planet's most intelligent species was unjustly killed for its own purpose of removing sins from all other members of that species. Conspiracy theories just don't get much better than this. When they will arrive is anyone's guess, but 2012 seems to strike a chord.
This theory was used in the film National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets, and claims that the Presidents of the United States have passed down a book from Washington to Obama, in which some or all have added facts and histories earth-shattering in scope and implications, and that this book's location is only known to the President, and the National Librarian of Congress. Thus, if the President is assassinated, the Librarian informs the next President of the book. After each President leaves office, the location is changed.
This book is rumored to contain the truth about the alien landings at Roswell, NM and Rendlesham Air Base, UK, and many other UFO events; the truth about the JFK and RFK assassinations; the location of the Holy Grail (tying in with the Fort Knox conspiracy theory); the fates of various high-ranking Nazis following WWII (and the facts concerning the U. S. government's assistance of them); even the identity of the Antichrist. Assuming there is a book, and assuming it identifies the Antichrist, we are led to wonder if he and the President are on the same side, are one and the same, or whether the President fears for Earth's immediate future. Even more insidious, in terms of realism, is the claim that the book told of the attacks of September 11, 2001 before they took place, and also tells of the imminent coup d'etat of Russia, followed by a Russo-North Korean invasion of South Korea, initiating WWIII.
You might have seen this one coming. Not many conspiracy theories sprang to life as quickly as the theory in the immediate aftermath of the Navy SEAL raid on bin Laden's hideout, that Osama bin Laden survived the raid, or wasn't even present to begin with. The theory was bound to show up anyway, but it took off like wildfire when the White House refused to release official photos of bin Laden's dead body. Why not? Let's all see the justice that was done.
That was what conspiracy theorists shouted, but the pictures will likely never see the light of day. The official excuse, from the President himself, is that it would be kicking a man while he's down, and not in keeping with the appearance of fairness the U. S. government prefers to show the world: the sentiment in withholding these pictures was meant to be "we're better than this barbarian."
But without the photo, many are still crying "fake!" The photo was described by numerous politicians as "very gory" with the entire forehead blown off and brain matter exposed. These politicians, according to the theory, are just part of the cover-up. So if bin Laden is alive, where is he? Well, just claiming that he's still hiding in the Tora Bora mountains doesn't suffice conspiracy theorists. They claim he is hiding in the last place anyone will ever look: the United States of America.
Theorists seem to have derived this one from a passage in the late, great Michael Crichton's novel The Andromeda Strain. In that book, one of the characters tells another about a top-secret U. S. government-funded medical research project which appeared to have discovered a single drug which would not only inhibit the reproduction of a bacteria in the human body, but actively kill all biological and viral pathogens known to science, without any serious repercussions to the human body.
The fact that it may stem from a novel has not deterred conspiracy theorists from claiming that Crichton was stating facts but was afraid to admit to it, which is why he hid his facts in a work of fiction. In this passage, the drug is not named, but it is described as causing no more discomfort to the person than diarrhea, because it also kills the good bacteria in the intestines. It kills cancer within days and kills AIDS, syphillis, Herpes Simplexes I and II, Rabies Encephalitis, and every single disease of any kind ever known.
The character who describes it remarks that it was about to be made commercially available, until doctors took patients off the drug after several months, and all of them promptly died within weeks from unknown diseases never before seen that caused bizarre and horrifying problems in the body: brains melted, metastasized cancer of every single organ and tissue in the body within days, liquefied livers, and many others. The reason? While on the miracle drug, the human body had no need for its immune system, which stopped functioning. Then when the drug was discontinued, the only barrier the human body has between itself and all the weak bacteria and viruses humans never have problems with did not restart, allowing those germs to create unheard-of infections.
That's all courtesy of Crichton, but the conspiracy theory claims that this drug exists, was tried on people, and was taken off the market for a completely different reason: while the human immune system was not stopping (which is true; it will do its job unless suppressed by age and/or strong diseases), visits to doctors' offices were. And like all medical conspiracy theories, this one centers on the insidious motive of greed on the part of the American Medical Association, which would be put out of business completely and forever should the drug hit the open market.
This one is based on the fact that the so-called "Grand Grimoire" exists, and it does. It is a book, also called "The Red Dragon," and the "Gospel of Satan." The book is real because the Roman Catholic Church officially claims ownership of it, but has never let the public glimpse it. It is fact that it was discovered in Jerusalem in 1750, in the tomb of Solomon, written in either Biblical Hebrew or Aramaic. The manuscript has not been dated to an earlier time than this, or else the Church has not said, but the book itself is inscribed with the date of 1522 AD. Theorists claims it was copied in that year from a manuscript written in the 1200s AD or earlier.
The earliest known proof of it comes from the writings of one Honorius of Thebes, whose existence has not been undeniably proven. He may have been Pope Honorius III (1148-1227). Honorius of Thebes is believed to have written something now referred to as the "Sworn Book of Honorius," from which the Grand Grimoire was derived, or which is, in fact, the Grand Grimoire itself.
The theory claims that Honorius was either Satan himself, or possessed by Satan for the purpose of writing the book. It contains instructions on summoning Satan at any time, at any place on Earth, for various insidious intentions. The word "grimoire" denotes a textbook of magic. Any kind of magic, whether good or bad. A great deal of so-called copies are in circulation around the world, but none of these, the conspiracy theory claims, contains the true words of the actual Grimoire. It is very popular in the voodoo culture of Haiti, and practitioners there claim to use the book all the time, like a cookbook for spells and hexes.
Theorists claims the Grand Grimoire is itself supernatural in that it permanently resists burning, cannot be cut, pierced, penetrated, torn, or in any other way damaged or destroyed. It is the only book with the knowledge of how to summon Satan (all others being fakes that don't work), with a precise ritual to be performed, and in addition to this, it can summon any number of named demons (Pazuzu, from "The Exorcist" among them). Being written by Satan, it details proofs of various supernatural miracles of the Bible, the precise locations of biblical relics, and even contains Satan's personal sketches of the faces of Judas Iscariot and Jesus Christ. Because it is in the Catholic Church's possession, the theory goes on to claim that every Pope starts out a human, and then becomes possessed by Satan once he is elected.
The 1989 film "Warlock," starring Julian Sands as the prospective Antichrist, uses the Grimoire as a major plot device, and goes even further, claiming that the Grimoire contains the secret name of God, which, when uttered backward, will annihilate the Universe. This lister paused the film and inched it forward at the climax to read the secret name, and it is "Roaisha." Help yourselves. Think it just couldn't possibly get any better? Well, this last quality of the Grimoire was most likely invented by David Twohy, who wrote the story for the film. But conspiracy theorists have championed the idea ever since, claiming that everything in this entry is based on provable facts, and that these facts are in the Grand Grimoire itself.
So where is the Grimoire? You guessed it – in the Vatican Secret Archives.


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Hamad Port Cruise
Artificial islands and real richness
A journey to Qatar becomes special on an MSC cruise.
A cruise to Dubai, Abu Dhabi & Qatar will introduce you to Doha, the country's futuristic capital on The Gulf. The city is preparing to host the 2022 World Cup, enhancing its already awesome skyline with new super modern skyscrapers.
The Aspire Tower in Doha (300 meters) dominates the skylines. It is the highest building of the country, whose shape is akin to a torch. This building is located near the city of sport, which has already hosted events such as the XII Pan Arab games and which will have a central role during the World Cup. Much of Doha, including places of worship such as the new mosque in the Qatar Faculty of Islamic studies, seems to be already in the future. Don't miss a visit to the Pearl, a futuristic artificial circular port which is being developed to the north of the city centre, and yet, as you will notice on your MSC excursion, the ancient heart of the city still beats strong.
In the historical centre of Doha you will find a Suq where everything – from camels to gold – can be exchanged, and the Al Khoot fortress, dating back to the end of the nineteenth century and now converted into a museum. During your cruise to Doha with MSC Cruises, some excursions will lead you on the discovery of the north of the country and the history of this fascinating Emirate. In Ash Shamal the Al-Zubara fortress rises up from the middle of the desert and dates back to the thirties. The building, which at first sight seems an enormous sand castle, has been completely restored and transformed into a museum. Near the fortress you can also visit the archaeological remains of another, even older, defensive structure, Qal' at Murair. Also you will find Zubara, a village of traders and pearl divers, a settlement which dates back to the nineteenth century, and later abandoned.


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Shell's Arctic Disasters
Last March, I wrote about how Royal Dutch Shell was "preemptively" suing the Sierra Club to stop us from making the case that drilling for oil in the Arctic Ocean is risky and unsafe. As it turned out, Shell then spent the rest of 2012 making that argument far more convincingly than we could have. Shell ended the year with one of its drill ships grounded dangerously on a rocky Gulf of Alaska shore near Kodiak Island. But the company's problems started long before that.
On the way up to Alaska, Shell lost control of the drill ship Nobel Discoverer, and the company's oil-spill containment dome was damaged during a failed sea trial off the comparatively mild coast of Washington. Not an auspicious start.
Then, after claiming that it could clean up 95 percent of a major oil spill in the Arctic, Shell backtracked to say that it would only "encounter" that much spilled oil. It also brought enormous political pressure to secure a Clean Air Act waiver for higher levels of particulate-matter, nitrogen-oxides, and ammonia pollution and pushed the Coast Guard to lower safety standards for its oil-spill response barge, the Arctic Challenger. As of last week, the Coast Guard was investigating the crew of the Noble Discoverer for possible violations of federal law.
But the grounding over New Year's of the drill ship Kulluk, with more than 150,000 gallons of oil on board, has to be the final straw. Thankfully, the Coast Guard was able to rescue the rig's 18-person crew, but not before a hellish 18 hours of 40-mph-plus winds and 35-foot seas in the dark Arctic winter.
The grounding of the Kulluk points to a common thread in Shell's Arctic misadventures: greed. Originally, the drill ship was supposed to stay in Dutch Harbor over the winter. What prompted Shell's sudden decision to move the Kulluk and the Noble Discoverer out of the state before January 1, 2013 by undertaking a risky crossing of the Gulf of Alaska? The company wanted to avoid paying millions in taxes by exiting Alaska.
What Shell's doing in the Arctic is a perfect lesson in the deadly allure of "extreme" oil. Whether it's deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, digging for tar sands oil in the forests of Canada, or attempting to drill in Alaska's Chukchi and Beaufort Seas, the risks and dangers far outweigh any possible benefit beyond a thirst for profits.
And even if we could justify risking pristine Arctic wilderness, the habitat for dozens of threatened and endangered species, and the livelihoods of Alaska's indigenous people (which we can't), there's still the problem of climate disruption. The U.S. government estimates 26 billion barrels of oil might be under the Arctic Ocean. Even if we could safely get to that oil, burning and releasing that much carbon pollution into our atmosphere would mean a global climate disaster. The International Energy Agency estimates that two-thirds of known global fossil fuel reserves must stay in the ground if we are to have a shot at stabilizing warming at 2 degrees Celsius, which itself is a risky target -- more than double the warming we've already felt.
For Shell, 2012 was a year of dangerous mishaps that show why oil cannot be safely drilled from the Arctic Ocean. For the rest of us, it was a year of climate disasters -- from droughts and wildfires to record heat and the superstorm Sandy -- that show why it's more important than ever that we move beyond oil for good.
Send a message to President Obama: We can't trust Shell in America's Arctic.


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Architects: Eero Saarinen
- Year: 1962
Photographs:MWAA, Flickr: username-Laughing Squid, Flickr: username-askpang
Manufacturers: Security Metal Products Corp
Text description provided by the architects. Known for his innovative, sculptural forms used throughout both architecture and furniture designs, Eero Saarinen includes these same curving and organic forms in the TWA Terminal as well as in the Dulles International Airport on the outskirts of Washington D.C.
The growth in aviation at the end of World War II led to the proposal and passing of the Washington Airport Act of 1950, which stated that there would be federal backing for a second airport. After many proposed sites were not passed, President Eisenhower chose a small town once known as Willard as the best location for the airport in 1958.
Located 26 miles west of the central business district of Washington D.C. in Chantilly, Virginia, the Washington Dulles International Airport is named after John Foster Dulles, who was Secretary of State under President Eisenhower. It occupies 11,830 acres of land right on the border of Fairfax County and Loudoun County. Ranked the fifth largest hub for United Airlines, the Dulles Airport is one of the nation's busiest airports as it handles over 23 million passengers a day, flying to more than 125 destinations.
Finnish architect Eero Saarinen was hired as the architect of the main terminal, working with the civil engineering firm Ammann and Whitney, who was the lead contractor. Saarinen was chosen for his ability to provide graceful beauty, similar to the nature of flight. When faced with the challenge of designing the terminal's entrance, he had to create an articulated entrance to stand out against the modern and repetitive structure. He also had the typical challenge of providing graceful access to the building, encountered by automobile, entered and further accessed by foot. Famous architect Kevin Roche worked in the office of Saarinen during the time of this project, and with his contribution came the overal elliptical form of the building.
The Dulles terminal has two floors; the first for departing passengers, ticketing and concessions, and the other for arriving passengers, baggage claim, and ground transportation. One of the key moments of innovation in this terminal was the employment of new transport vehicles known as mobile lounges, which resembled a sort of giant luxury bus and carried up to ninety people from the terminal to their plane.
From the ramp, departing passengers go through ticketing to the runway side where they would find gates to take them to the mobile lounge. This inclusion of the mobile lounge led to a revolutionary approach to airport movement, allowing the design of Dulles to do away with the multitude of gates that cluttered most terminals before it. In attempts to allow more space between the front of the building and the ticket counters, the main terminal was reconfigured and additions were made to both ends, doubling the structure's length.
The original terminal at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport in Taipei, Taiwan was modeled after the Saarinen terminal at Dulles. This airport has been featured in many movies based in Washington, beginning with the 1964 film Seven Days in May. Other movies include Die Hard 2: Die Harder, The Package, Airport, Forces of Nature, The X-Files, and Body of Lies.
This building is part of our Architecture City Guide: Washington D.C. Check all the other buildings on this guide right here.


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Common Lisp the Language, 2nd Edition
Sometimes it is important to have explicit control over the representation of a structure. The :type option allows one to specify that a structure must be implemented in a particular way, using a list or a specific kind of vector, and to specify the exact allocation of structure slots to components of the representation. A structure may also be ``unnamed'' or ``named,'' according to whether the structure name is stored in (and thus recoverable from) the structure.


text: Ivan Oleynik wrote: > vendors have at least list prices available on their websites. > > > I saw only one vendor siliconmechanics.com <http://siliconmechanics.com> > that has online integrator. Others require direct contact of a saleperson. This isn't usually a problem if you have good spec's that they can work with for you. > > "thermal management"? servers need cold air in front and unobstructed > exhaust. that means open or mesh front/back (and blanking panels). > > > Yes, are there other options? Built-in airconditioning unit that will > exhaust the hot air through a pipe to dump the air outside computer > room other than heating it? You will pay (significantly) more per rack to have this. You seemed to indicate that bells and whistles are not wanted (e.g. "cost is king"). The hallmarks of good design for management of power/heat/performance/systems *all* will add (fairly non-trivial) premiums over your pricing. IPMI will make your life easier on management, though there is a cross-over where serial consoles/addressable and switchable PDUs make more sense. Of course grad students are "free", though the latency to get one into a server room at 2am may be higher than that of the IPMI and other solutions. > > > > wouldn't a 5100-based board allow you to avoid the premium of fbdimms? > > > May be I am wrong but I saw only FB-DIMMs options and assumed that we > need to wait for Nehalems for DDR3? Some vendors here can deliver the San Clemente based boards in compute nodes (DDR2). DDR3 can be delivered on non-Xeon platforms, though you lose other things by going that route. > > > > > - WD Caviar 750 Gb SATA HD > : > $110 > > > I usually figure a node should have zero or as many disks as feasible. > > > > We prefer to avoid intensive IO over network, therefore, use local scratch. We are measuring about 460 MB/s with NFS over RDMA from a node to our JackRabbit unit. SDR all the way around, with a PCIx board in the client. Measuring ~800 MB/s on OSU benchmarks, and 750 MB/s on RDMA bw tests in OFED 1.3.1. If you are doing IB to the nodes this should work nicely. Also, 10 GbE would work as well, though NFS over RDMA is more limited here. > > > HP is safe and solid and not cheap. for a small cluster like this, > I don't think vendor integration is terribly important. > > > Yes, it is important. Optimized cost is what matters. If cost is king, then you don't want IPMI, switchable PDUs, serial consoles/kvm over IP, fast storage units, ... Listening to the words of wisdom coming from the folks on this list, suggest that revising this plan, to incorporate at least some elements that make your life easier, is definitely in your interest. We agree with those voices. We are often asked to help solve our customers problems, remotely. Having the ability to take complete control (power, console, ...) of a node via a connection enables us to provide our customer with better support. Especially when they are a long car/plane ride away. I might suggest polling the people who build them for their research offline and ask them what things they have done, or wish they have done. You can always buy all the parts from Newegg and build it yourself if you wish. Newegg won't likely help you with subtle booting/OS load/bios versioning problems. Or help you identify performance bottlenecks under load. If this is important to you, ask yourself (and the folks on the list) what knowledgeable support and good design is worth. Joe -- Joseph Landman, Ph.D Founder and CEO Scalable Informatics LLC, email: landman at scalableinformatics.com web : http://www.scalableinformatics.com http://jackrabbit.scalableinformatics.com phone: +1 734 786 8423 fax : +1 866 888 3112 cell : +1 734 612 4615


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A Southeast Alaska Native corporation and a conservation group are combining forces to try to spur sustainable regional development. They're funding a $500,000 business-plan contest aimed at, but not limited to, the area's smaller communities.
It's no secret Southeast Alaska has had its share of economic problems. They've hit villages and small cities especially hard.
"Our focus has to be on providing opportunities for families and residents to remain in these rural communities," said Russell Dick, president and CEO of Haa Aaní, LLC, a subsidiary of the Juneau-based Sealaska regional Native corporation.
Haa Aaní has a nonprofit community development fund. It's partnering with The Nature Conservancy on a competition, called Path to Prosperity.
"This is really a program about creating entrepreneurship, creating business, creating economic development in a way that utilizes our natural resources within the communities to sustain lifestyles," Dick said.
The contest will collect proposals from Southeast residents, businesses and tribal entities.
A dozen finalists will be brought to Juneau for a weekend boot camp to learn about business development and plan-writing.
Norm Cohen is Southeast program director for The Nature Conservancy. The international organization supports environmentally friendly, small-scale development projects.
"Our theory of change is that there are other uses of forest products and activities that can take place in the forest that can be a strong economic opportunity that will last for a long period of time without jeopardizing use for future generations," Cohen said.
Two contest winners in each of three rounds will receive up to $40,000 in consulting and technical services.
Dick of Haa Aaní said that could include help with trademarks and patents, hiring and financing.
"Hopefully by the end of the second year, after continued development of their business plan, our goal is to put them in contact, or partner them, with organizations that can provide venture capital funding, financing and other types of loans," he said.
The Nature Conservancy is providing a quarter-million-dollar grant for the competition. Dick said Haa Aaní will match that with staff time and other support.
Sealaska has a lot of critics.
One is Juneau shareholder Brad Fluetsch. He's a private financial manager and moderator of the 4,400-member Facebook site Sealaska Shareholders.
"It's a business competition because the management of Haa Aaní is completely devoid of ideas, comprehension or ability to manage a business," he said.
Fluetsch said he's proposed village commercial ventures such as harvesting berries, growing peonies for the wedding market, and collecting wild mushrooms.
"There's 11 varieties of commercial mushrooms that could be easily harvested in Southeast. (I've) written up an entire business plan for Sealaska. This is how you make money on our land creating jobs in our communities," Fluetsch said.
Dick said he's aware of the proposals, and they could be submitted to the competition or considered separately.
Parent company Sealaska is in the resource-development business and logging has provided a large portion of its revenue.
Dick said Haa Aaní is looking for smaller enterprises. That could include shellfish farms, berry-picking or wood-pellet production.
"Saying we're going to come in and develop a mine somewhere in one of our communities may create an issue for us," he said.
Competition organizers will offer an informational webinar Aug. 12th. The deadline for the first round of proposals is Sept. 16th.
Sealaska has about 21,000 shareholders with tribal roots in Southeast. Fewer than half live in the region, with many in Anchorage or the Pacific Northwest.